Cinex
About
Cinex is an AI-powered production platform for creative teams. One space for script breakdown, element tracking, scheduling, & call sheets — connected end to end, designed around how productions actually work rather than how software companies imagine they do.
Problem ⊙
Film is one of the most coordinated creative endeavors humans attempt. Hundreds of people, thousands of decisions, everything dependent on everything else. And yet the average production runs on spreadsheets, PDFs, and group chats. Not because nobody noticed — because nobody had built anything better.
#1 Highlight
Script Sync
Every film goes through dozens of script drafts before cameras roll. Each one breaks the existing breakdown. The goal was to design a system that made revisions survivable.
How Might We
How might we make script revisions survivable without forcing ADs to abandon their existing breakdown & start over?
Solution
A 4-step review flow that compares an incoming draft against the existing version — auto-matching unchanged scenes, surfacing only what actually moved, and preserving every note and detail on unaffected scenes. The mental model was visual diff, see exactly what changed, confirm what didn't, move on; but the interface had to feel like a production tool, not a developer one. Every step is a clear decision.
User goal → Get back to work in hours, not days. Keep every decision intact across drafts.
Product goal → Make revision tolerance a core product promise — the breakdown & elements detection survives the rewrite, every time.
Design ↔ Code
Script Sync was the most complex UX problem on the project & the one where my process was least linear. I sketched the flow in Figma, then immediately built a working prototype with Claude to feel how the steps actually behaved in sequence. That prototype revealed problems the static frames never would have.
Back to Figma, refined, built again. Several full cycles before the flow felt right. By the end, Figma and code were evolving together rather than in sequence, design & code as the same conversation, not a handoff.
quick iterations, controlled chaos, just enough to know what to build next
prototyping with claude; rough, functional, & more useful than two weeks of frames
#2 Highlight
Workspaces
Every department on a production has the same problem: too many assets, too many scenes, too much noise from everyone else. The costume team doesn't need to see what the props department is tracking. The props department doesn't need the costume team's mood boards.
How Might We
How might we give each department their own structured view of the production without fragmenting information across shared drives and group chats?
Solution
Each department gets their own structured layer of the production — organized scene by scene, with saved filters and custom views. Same underlying data, completely different surface depending on who's looking. One place for all references, decisions, and assets. No more hunting through shared drives and group chats to find what was agreed three weeks ago.
User goal → Find what you need without asking anyone. Stop rebuilding the same filters every time you open a spreadsheet.
Product goal → Make Cinex the single source of truth for every department, replacing shared drives, not competing with them.
Templates give departments a pre-configured starting point for the most common production types, with structure, fields, and notes already in place. Pick a template, adjust what's different, start working.
On-Set Testing
Cinex was tested on active productions — real shoots, real time pressure, real decisions happening fast. The insights from those days shaped the product more than any research session.
Shooting for Bitfinex – 2025
#1 Insight
The schedule is the product
What's shooting now, what got cancelled, what moved — this is how a crew stays coordinated. A live tracking view became the most requested feature after the first set test.
#2 Insight
Nobody opens a laptop on set
We optimized the core views for tablet first → the set testing made clear that a dedicated mobile app, built around what a crew actually needs in hand on shoot day, is the natural next step.
#3 Insight
Paper isn't going anywhere
PDF exports stayed essential even with a digital tool in everyone's hands. Designing around paper as part of the workflow — not a fallback — changed how exports were built.
Landing Page
The hardest part of designing the landing page wasn't the layout — it was the hierarchy of proof. What do you show first to someone who's never heard of Cinex? What do you show to someone who has? The page was structured to work for both without feeling like it was trying to please everyone.
Branding
Cinex brand needed to feel serious enough for professional productions while staying approachable for emerging filmmakers. Deep purples, geometric forms, high contrast — a visual identity that sits comfortably in the world of film without mimicking it.
